OUTDOORS: Ways to fight the frosty funk

Why am I not in Florida?I’d wager a heap of winter-weary sports are asking themselves the same question this dreary time of year.

The wistful dream of balmy temperatures and sunny skies was prompted by a video sent to me from a former PR girl for the Florida Keys who now runs her own boat tour business in Miami.

The clip was from a local TV morning show which featured her whisking the talking heads around Biscayne Bay and chatting up the scenery and homes of the rich and famous.

She added that she had just gotten back from a road trip that included stops at “every dive oyster bar from north of Cedar Key to Mobile, Alabama.”

Shoot me now.Despite what the Pennsy groundhog saw, spring isn’t coming tomorrow, and we just have to deal with gray, sullen days and the accompanying cranky mood. I’m deep into the latter, smitten by a nasty cold and hacking cough not being helped by gallons of chicken soup and tea laced with antibiotics bottled in Tennessee.

So what did I do last week? Went pheasant hunting in 40 mph wind gusts at Bent Creek Preserve. In October we put up nine birds and downed seven. This time six got up and two went down. I claim coughing, sneezing and watery eyes as my alibi, along with the ripping gale. Bad timing.

With this winter’s up-and-down weather ice fishing is still a crapshoot in many places. We used to fly fish streams in mid-winter, bouncing Muddler Minnows off the bottom and usually managing to catch a few trout. That was when we were young and didn’t know any better.

Now in my dotage, winter is best spent indoors for the long haul after deer season, which is still going on in some zones.

Last week’s column detailed the abrupt shutdown of the largest outdoor show in the country, the Eastern Sports and Outdoors Show in Harrisburg, Pa. The reason was a huge pullout by exhibitors over the promoter’s refusal to allow “modern sporting arms” in the event. In many cases, MSR’s resemble— but are not — assault rifles.

The development was not all bad.As a result, some of the other shows remaining on this season’s schedule may see an uptick in attendance because a bunch of the estimated quarter-million attendees at the Harrisburg expo will go to outdoorsy events elsewhere.

One, a much smaller venue, is the Parsippany Sports Show.It will be held this weekend at the PAL Center on Baldwin Roadand will run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Admission is only five dollars. Most outdoor expos have double-digit ticket prices.

As to the fate of the mega show in Harrisburg, an e-mail to The Trentonian Friday from Rick Dunlap, Director of PR Communications for the Hershey-Harrisburg Regional Visitors Bureau, said “We have yet to hear from the promoter on plans to hold this show in 2013 or their long-term plans to return in 2014. Whatever their decision may be, the visitors bureau and our partners are committed to making sure this 62-year-old tradition takes place at the Farm Show & Expo Complex in 2014.”

He added that a new show producer is a possibility “if Reed doesn’t return.” Reed Exhibitions, headquartered in the U.K., produces the event.

“It would be disappointing if Reed drops it because they have always been a very good client,” Dunlap said, “but the tradition of this event and the overwhelming support from the estimated 250,000 attendees and 1,400 vendors annually will clearly make finding a solution to this year’s gap a priority for our bureau and the venue in 2014.”

Meanwhile, a sampling of alternative shows to get you out of the house include The Atlantic City Boat Show, Feb. 6-10, The Greater Philadelphia Outdoor Sports Show Feb. 14-17 in Oaks, Pa., and the annual World Fishing & Outdoor Exposition Feb. 28-March 3 at Rockland Community College in Suffern, N.Y.

The Berkley Striper Club is holding its 18th annual Fisherman’s Flea Market March 3 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Toms River Intermediate School with more than 60 tables of new and used tackle. Admission is $3. Go to www.berkeleystriperclub.org for more info.